In Chapter 2 of The Watsons Go to Birmingham -
1963, the two things that Kenny thinks are wrong with him are that he is
smart, and that he has a lazy eye.
From a very young age,
Kenny has been able to read well, and he loves doing it. At first he thinks it is cool
that teachers think he is smart because of his reading ability, but he soon notices that
while the teachers are
"smiling a mile a minute, all the kids (have)
their faces twisted up or (are) looking at (him) like (he is) a six-legged
dog."
To make things worse,
the teachers are so amazed at his precociousness that they parade Kenny through the
school, having him read before the older classes. The other kids resent this treatment
of Kenny and give him a hard time, but his brother Byron comes to the rescue. Byron, who
is older and super-cool, sticks up for Kenny, and the other kids, seeing this, begin to
leave Kenny alone.
The other thing that Kenny thinks is
wrong with him is his lazy eye, which causes one of his eyeballs to "rest in the corner
of (his) eye next to (his) nose." Kenny tries all kinds of exercises to fix his eye, but
nothing helps, and kids often tease him because of his odd appearance. Byron helps Kenny
with this problem also; he shows his little brother how to keep his head straight when
he is talking to people and look at them sideways, so his eyes are looking in the same
direction. Byron's trick works, and Kenny becomes much more comfortable interacting with
people when they are not teasing him or staring at his lazy eye.
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